


You are Strong

by fanfic_nonnie



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Chocolate Box Treat, Friendship, Gen, Parenthood, Pregnancy, single mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5755711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfic_nonnie/pseuds/fanfic_nonnie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toph copes with becoming a new mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You are Strong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Wavesinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Wavesinger/gifts).



Katara wasn’t expecting to come home, juggling a baby on one hip and a basket of food from the market, and find Toph sitting on her doorstep.

“Hello, Katara,” Toph said, voice a little low and brooding for all her face didn’t give away whether anything was bothering.

But she wasn’t blustering or teasing, and if there was one thing Katara had learned about Toph a long time ago, it was that quiet wasn’t usually a good sign.

She decided not to beat around the bush. Toph appreciated bluntness as few did. “Are you okay?”

Toph stared at her with those sightless eyes, almost as unerringly as if she could see. “I’m pregnant.”

The flat statement took Katara aback. “Oh.” She pushed open the door. “Come in.”

It was clearly what Toph had had in mind all along. She stood and followed Katara into the house.

* * *

The kitchen was still a mess from wrangling Bumi through breakfast, and Katara was somewhat relieved that Toph never had been or could be very concerned with appearances. She tucked Bumi into his high chair, where he gurgled protests at losing his perch on her hip. Then she pulled together two cups of tea, going for the safe tea she had drunk when pregnant to relieve nausea.

“You like tea, right?” Katara asked, trying to remember Toph’s preferences.

Toph brushed aside her concern. “Iroh would always give me tea.”

And Toph had always been a favorite with Zuko’s uncle, somewhat related to the fact that he was a favorite with her.

Katara set the tea between them and sat across from Toph at the table. "Is the father in the picture?" she asked gently, carefully.

Toph sipped her tea, swallowed. "No, he isn't." Determination crossed over her face, then out came the brashness Katara kept waiting for. “It’s not like I need him to raise a child.” 

If Katara could find that man and make him own up to his responsibilities, she would, and tell him off for abandoning Toph into the bargain, but she didn’t know who he was and doubted Toph would want to tell her, so she simply reached out, took Toph’s hand, and squeezed.

She was rewarded by a faint smile and the slightest relaxation of the tenseness in Toph’s shoulders.

“Who needs him when you have your friends?” Katara agreed.

And there was Toph's grin at last, if a little more wobbly than she'd appreciate anyone noticing. "Yeah."

* * *

Toph didn’t tell her parents, not right away, though by now, it was a given they would want to know. There would be a new daughter to the Beifong family, a new heir to their legacy, and as much as it would please them, Toph didn’t want to share the tiny warm life snuggled against her chest until she was sure of how to handle their influence.

Lin was _her_ daughter, and she knew what she wanted for her.

"You are strong,” she told her daughter, late at night, when Lin’s fussing had drawn her out of a shallow sleep.

She could still hear her father’s voice echoing through her memory and all the years since.

_My daughter is blind. She is blind and tiny and helpless and fragile._

But Toph was not fragile, and Lin wouldn’t be either.

"You are strong, my little Lin. You can do anything you want to. You can see with your eyes, with your heart, with your earthbending." She kissed Lin’s little face, felt the skin scrunch up beneath her lips, heard the soft whimper before Lin snuggled in tighter against her mother.

She would give anything at all for Lin to grow up strong and happy.

“You’re strong.”


End file.
